GOLF

GOLF; Forget Finesse, Remember a Name: Els Wins Open

By LARRY DORMAN,

Published: June 21, 1994

OAKMONT, Pa., June 20—
It isn't often that a golfer can drive his ball all over the state of Pennsylvania and still win the United States Open. Then again, it isn't often that a golfer like Ernie Els comes along.

Els, 24 years old and brimming with youthful power and aplomb, did the seemingly impossible today in a three-way playoff for the 94th United States Open at Oakmont Country Club. The big South African muscled his way to a title that usually rewards finesse, ripping his way out of the rough and putting a foreign grip on the Open trophy for the first time since 1981.

In a tournament that was as much about survival as shotmaking, Els's victory over Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie might not have been pretty to watch. But it was definitely something to see.

Montgomerie, a Scot who had announced himself as the favorite when the three players tied at 279 on Sunday, melted in the oppressive heat. He suffered three double bogeys and shot 78. Els started out with a bogey and a triple bogey on the first two holes, but recovered for a 74 that tied Roberts and forced just the second sudden-death playoff in Open history. 'Dug Very Deep'

In the sudden death, both players parred the 10th, the first extra hole. On the 378-yard 11th hole, Roberts drove his tee shot into the left rough and then hit a 9-iron into a bad lie in a greenside bunker. With an uphill lie and a bad stance, Roberts could get the ball no closer than 35 feet, and his putt for par hit the right lip and spun out. Els, who had driven down the middle and then hit a 9-iron 18 feet left of the hole, two-putted for the victory.

"I dug very deep today and we brought it out," Els said. "Whenever I had a putt that I had to make, I made that putt."

That, in the end, was the story of the Open playoff. Els hit just six fairways today, which usually would be a formula for disaster. But he overcame his wildness off the tee by out-putting Roberts, who is one of the best putters in the game. Roberts made two big putts down the stretch, a 16-footer for birdie at the 17th and a 10-footer for par at the 18th, but the touch that had put him into the playoff wasn't there today on key putts early in the round.

"I just felt like that was the difference," Roberts said. "The putter got me where I was today, but then it let me down until the last couple of holes." Turning Point at Third Hole

Els made a huge par-saving putt at the 13th hole, an 18-footer that curled right into the middle of the hole. He made a 10-footer for par at the 15th hole and a 7-footer for birdie on the 17th, right on top of Roberts's birdie putt.

All of those were huge putts. But the biggest putt of all might have come earlier in the day, all the way back at the third hole, when Els was wondering to himself just what exactly he was doing in a playoff for the United States Open. At the first hole he drove his ball into the high rough behind the ABC-TV camera crane, just as he had Sunday, and made bogey. He followed that with a triple bogey at the second, a 342-yard hole he had played like a high handicapper.

On that hole, Els's wedge shot flew into a bush behind the green. He took an unplayable lie, went up on a ridge near the third tee and chipped his ball off the green. Three putts later, he had a seven.

"I didn't hit one good shot on that hole," he said.

But he hit enough fine shots after it to play the final 16 holes of regulation and the two sudden-death holes in one under par.

Els birdied the third with a 36-foot putt that broke right to left. "When that went in," he said, "I thought things would start getting better." Two More Birdies on Front Nine

They did. Els birdied two more holes on the front, pulling even with Roberts with his birdie at the seventh and staying even with his two-putt birdie at the ninth. He fell a stroke behind with a bogey at the 12th hole after driving into the rough, but then came his best stroke of the day, the 18-footer for par at the 13th hole that kept him alive. By this point it was a two-man affair. Montgomerie had butchered the 11th, making his third double bogey of the day there to go to eight over. Els was a stroke behind Roberts, four over at the time.

When Roberts three-putted the 16th hole from 30 feet, Els had the opening he needed. He seized it. His game was back, especially on the final five holes. This was the Ernie Els who has finished no worse than eighth in five of his seven major championship appearances. That he won was a tribute to perseverance, and no one recognized it more than Roberts.

"It shows guts that he came back from the triple bogey," Roberts said. "He's a true champion, because he was able to come back. That's what true champions do." Shades of Nicklaus?

Els will now be anointed as the young player who could very well go on to dominate the game. Jack Nicklaus, who dominated golf like no one before or since, thinks Els might be the genuine article.

"I have said for a long time that some guy is going to come along, big and strong, and have a touch," Nicklaus said. "We might have one. He's already a very good player. But so darn young. He has a great opportunity, though.

"He is probably the golfer of the future."

He definitely is the golfer of the present. When he stepped up and knocked in the final 3-footer, right after Roberts's desperation 35-footer for par on the second playoff hole had lipped out, Ernie Els won the United States Open, ugly or not, bad driving day and all. It was a performance that belied his youth, and one that establishes, quite clearly, his future.

Photo: Ernie Els of South Africa celebrating his victory in the U.S. Open's three-way playoff yesterday at Oakmont Country Club. (Reuters)